[Editor: This song was published in The Old Bush Songs (1905), edited by Banjo Paterson. It was previously published in The Queenslander, 21 July 1894.]
The Freehold on the Plain
(Air: “The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane”)
I’m a broken-down old squatter, my cash it is all gone,
Of troubles and bad seasons I complain;
My cattle are all mortgaged, of horses I have none,
And I’ve lost that little freehold on the plain.
Chorus
The stockyard’s broken down, and the woolshed’s tumbling in;
I’ve written to the mortgagees in vain;
My wool it is all damaged and it isn’t worth a pin,
And I’ve lost that little freehold on the plain.
I commenced life as a squatter some twenty years ago,
When fortune followed in my train;
But I speculated heavy, and I’d have you all to know
That I’ve lost that little freehold on the plain.
Chorus: The stockyard’s broken down, &c.
I built myself a mansion, and chose myself a wife;
Of her I have no reason to complain;
For I thought I had sufficient to last me all my life,
But I’ve lost that little freehold on the plain.
Chorus: The stockyard’s broken down, etc.
And now I am compelled to take a drover’s life,
To drive cattle through the sunshine and the rain.
And to leave her behind me, my own dear loving wife
We were happy on that freehold on the plain.
Chorus: The stockyard’s broken down, &c.
Source:
A. B. Paterson (editor), The Old Bush Songs, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1905, pp. 123-124
Previously published in:
The Queenslander (Brisbane, Qld.), 21 July 1894, p. 116
The Institute of Australian Culture
Speak Your Mind